#maggienelson

[dk-thrive]

I’ve grown weary by how much I quote and how much I rely on reading to write.

People think I read a lot too, but it’s getting to be less and less. Recently I had to give a talk and a seminar at Rutgers, so I reread a bunch of my stuff in preparation, and I watched some of the videos. I’ve grown weary by how much I quote and how much I rely on reading to write. I love how you put it—“looking for what you need”—and the excitement that arises when you find the right thing. But I feel more and more self-conscious. In the thing I’m writing now for my next video, I’m trying to refer, for example, to Godard and Barthes, without using their names. That’s how desperate I am to change things up!

— Moyra Davey, in Maggie Nelson’s from “A LIFE, A FACE, A GAZE. Conversation with Moyra Davey” in Like Love: Essays and Conversations. (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)

[dk-thrive]

That voice—it is all a writer has

For some time now we have lived in a culture in which “PC” and “anti-PC” (or their various zombie incarnations, such as “woke” and “anti-woke”)…How to explore these many nerve endings and truths— … How do we expose the ways in which categorization, boundary making, the repetition of predictable tropes and stances, can be utterly murderous to the operations of art, thought, and love, while also recognizing that there are of course moments when one must take a stand in more simple, at times even simplistic, terms? […] Generally, what is compromised is one’s voice. That voice—it is all a writer has.” Hilton has never given up, will never give up, his voice. It’s the voice of someone who has trained himself—or who knows? maybe he just came out this way—to say precisely what he thinks, rather than what anyone—white or otherwise—expects, demands, or hopes.

— — Maggie Nelson, Like Love: Essays and Conversations. (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)

[dk-thrive]

…an unqualified yes to life….

— Hilton Als, in Maggie Nelson’s “Like Love: Essays and Conversations.” (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)

[dk-thrive]

…especially since good writing, not to mention good thinking, takes so much goddamn time?

— Maggie Nelson, Like Love: Essays and Conversations. (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)

[dk-thrive]

How silly and frightening and probably impossible—a human free of shame! … It also might be a clue as to the nature of shame itself—it can be so private, and as often as not, met with a shrug by others… A lot of the work I love becomes shameless as it delves headlong into shame.

— Maggie Nelson, Like Love: Essays and Conversations. (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)

[dk-thrive]

Reading: a literal ingestion, a bulimic gobbling up of words as if they were fast food.

I was also interested in the way you write about reading, in your essay “Notes on Photography & Accident.” You describe reading as “a literal ingestion, a bulimic gobbling up of words as if they were fast food.” I was also interested in the way you write about reading, in your essay “Notes on Photography & Accident.” You describe reading as “a literal ingestion, a bulimic gobbling up of words as if they were fast food.” I feel embarrassed when people treat me like a big reader, as I actually feel ashamed of how little I actually read, or how poorly I read. I don’t know if this is a result of the internet like everyone says or if it has more to do with this “bulimic gobbling up of words,” the selective gusto of reading as a writer, looking for what you need. When I was getting a PhD, I often imagined there could be a kind of IV drip of books, because I needed to read more than I had time to read—I didn’t know how to, say, ingest all of The Last of the Mohicans in a day, or a week, so I started fantasizing other ways to get it in my head, my body. I forgot, or never realized, how to savor. I just crammed it in.

— Maggie Nelson, from “A LIFE, A FACE, A GAZE. Conversation with Moyra Davey” in Like Love: Essays and Conversations. (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)

[dk-thrive]

Maybe part of the fatigue (and potential bulimia) of the internet comes from knowing that ‘everything’ is available to us at the touch of a finger. It’s all there to read instantaneously, or it can be on your doorstep in two days.

— Moyra Davey, in Maggie Nelson’s from “A LIFE, A FACE, A GAZE. Conversation with Moyra Davey” in Like Love: Essays and Conversations. (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)

[dk-thrive]

When you have generosity toward others, self-love is possible, or is it vice versa?

— Moyra Davey, in Maggie Nelson’s from “A LIFE, A FACE, A GAZE. Conversation with Moyra Davey” in Like Love: Essays and Conversations. (Graywolf Press, April 2, 2024)